How to Move from Smartsheet to ClickUp Step-by-Step

If you are ready to outgrow Smartsheet, ClickUp gives you a more flexible, all-in-one workspace to manage projects, documents, and collaboration. This guide walks you through a practical, step-by-step process to move away from Smartsheet and rebuild your work management system using ClickUp as a powerful alternative.

Following this structured approach helps you avoid chaos, keep your team aligned, and take advantage of the capabilities described in the original comparison of Smartsheet alternatives on the ClickUp blog about Smartsheet alternatives.

Step 1: Decide Why You Are Moving to ClickUp

Before touching any settings, clarify why your team wants to leave Smartsheet and move to ClickUp. Having clear reasons will guide how you design your new workspace.

Common reasons teams adopt ClickUp

• You need more flexible project views and customizations.
• You want to replace multiple tools with one unified platform.
• You need better collaboration features for remote or hybrid teams.
• You want advanced automation and templates to speed up work.

Write down your top three goals for using ClickUp. Examples:

• Standardize how every project is planned and tracked.
• Give executives high-level visibility into cross-team work.
• Reduce time spent updating spreadsheets and manual status reports.

These goals will become the foundation for your new structure inside ClickUp.

Step 2: Map Your Smartsheet Structure to ClickUp

Smartsheet uses sheets, reports, and dashboards to organize work. ClickUp uses a hierarchical workspace that lets you group everything in a more scalable way.

Understand the ClickUp hierarchy

At a high level, you will build a structure like this:

• Workspaces – Your overall company or major business unit.
• Spaces – Departments or high-level portfolios (for example, Marketing, Product, Operations).
• Folders – Programs or categories within a space (for example, Campaigns, Product Launches).
• Lists – Individual projects or workflows.
• Tasks & Subtasks – Actionable work items and detailed steps.

Translate Smartsheet elements to ClickUp

• Smartsheet sheets often become ClickUp Lists or Folders.
• Smartsheet rows become ClickUp tasks or subtasks.
• Smartsheet columns become ClickUp Custom Fields.
• Smartsheet dashboards become ClickUp Dashboards or specialized views.

Create a simple mapping document so you know where each major sheet and report will live once it is rebuilt in ClickUp.

Step 3: Plan Your New ClickUp Space

Now that you understand the hierarchy, design the future layout you will use every day inside ClickUp.

Design Spaces and Folders

1. List your departments or major functions.
2. Turn each into a Space.
3. Under each Space, list repeating programs (for example, “Client Projects”, “Internal Projects”).
4. Turn those into Folders in ClickUp.

This layout gives you a clear home for every type of work and prevents clutter as you continue to grow.

Create Lists and task types

Within each Folder, identify the kinds of projects or workflows you use most. Each one becomes a List in ClickUp. Examples include:

• Product Launch Plan
• Marketing Campaign Tracker
• IT Requests
• Customer Onboarding

For each List, define:

• Custom statuses (for example, To Do, In Progress, In Review, Complete).
• Assignees and watchers.
• Custom Fields that replace Smartsheet columns (budgets, owners, dates, tags).

Step 4: Prepare and Clean Your Smartsheet Data

Before building anything in ClickUp, take a moment to clean up your existing Smartsheet content. This step prevents you from importing out-of-date or irrelevant information.

Review your current sheets

• Delete sheets that are no longer used.
• Archive completed projects that do not need to move.
• Standardize column names so they map cleanly to Custom Fields in ClickUp.
• Remove duplicate rows and old test data.

The cleaner your starting point, the easier your transition to ClickUp will be.

Prioritize what to rebuild

You do not need to move everything at once. Choose:

• Active projects.
• Key templates used by many teams.
• Any sheet that leadership relies on for visibility.

Move these first, then add historical data only if needed.

Step 5: Rebuild Your Workflows in ClickUp

With your structure planned and data cleaned, you are ready to start building inside ClickUp.

1. Create Spaces, Folders, and Lists

1. In your new Workspace, add a Space for each department.
2. Within each Space, create Folders that match your programs.
3. Inside each Folder, add Lists for the high-priority projects and workflows you identified earlier.

Keep your first version simple. You can always refine and expand later.

2. Set up ClickUp Custom Fields

Next, recreate your most important Smartsheet columns using Custom Fields in ClickUp. Examples include:

• Priority (drop-down or labels).
• Budget or cost (number or currency).
• Owner department (drop-down).
• Client name (text or relationship field).
• Target launch date (date field).

Apply these Custom Fields at the Space or Folder level so every related List keeps the same structure.

3. Configure ClickUp views

In each List, add the views that will replace your Smartsheet layouts. Popular options include:

• List View for spreadsheet-style editing.
• Board View for Kanban-style workflows.
• Gantt View for schedules and dependencies.
• Calendar View for date-focused planning.

This gives every stakeholder a tailored way to see the same data inside ClickUp.

Step 6: Build Dashboards and Reports in ClickUp

Smartsheet users often rely on dashboards and reports for leadership visibility. You can recreate these with flexible dashboards inside ClickUp.

Create your first ClickUp Dashboard

1. Identify the key metrics you track today (for example, tasks at risk, project completion, workload by team).
2. Create a Dashboard and add widgets such as charts, task lists, and time tracking summaries.
3. Filter by Spaces, Folders, or Lists that matter to leadership.
4. Save the Dashboard and share it with relevant stakeholders.

Dashboards in ClickUp allow you to centralize cross-project insights without maintaining multiple spreadsheets.

Step 7: Test Your New ClickUp Setup with a Pilot Team

Instead of moving everyone at once, run a short pilot to validate your ClickUp configuration.

Run a 2–4 week pilot

1. Select one team or one project with clear goals.
2. Move only that team’s active work into ClickUp.
3. Ask users to rely on ClickUp as their primary system during the pilot.
4. Collect feedback on what works well and what feels confusing.

Use what you learn to refine Custom Fields, statuses, and views before broader rollout.

Step 8: Train Your Team to Use ClickUp Effectively

Tools only work if people know how to use them. Plan time for training so your move from Smartsheet to ClickUp is smooth.

Focus training on real workflows

• Show how to create and update tasks.
• Walk through the main views they will use.
• Demonstrate how to comment, @mention teammates, and share links.
• Explain how dashboards give leadership visibility.

Short, scenario-based sessions are more effective than long, generic demos when introducing ClickUp.

Step 9: Optimize and Scale Your ClickUp Workspace

After your initial rollout, continue to refine how you use ClickUp based on actual usage and feedback.

Iterate on your setup

• Standardize List templates for recurring projects.
• Automate repetitive steps with rules and triggers.
• Refine Dashboards to highlight the metrics that matter most.
• Retire or merge Lists that become redundant.

This continuous improvement approach keeps ClickUp aligned with your evolving processes.

Where to Get Extra Help Beyond ClickUp Docs

If you want expert guidance to speed up your transition or design a more advanced workspace around ClickUp, consider working with specialists. For example, Consultevo helps teams design and optimize modern work management systems using leading tools.

You can also study detailed comparisons and best practices in the original Smartsheet alternatives article on the ClickUp blog, then apply the same principles inside your own Workspace.

Next Steps for Your Move to ClickUp

To recap, your migration path from Smartsheet to ClickUp looks like this:

1. Clarify why you are switching.
2. Map your existing structure to the ClickUp hierarchy.
3. Design Spaces, Folders, and Lists.
4. Clean and prioritize your Smartsheet data.
5. Rebuild workflows, Custom Fields, and views.
6. Create dashboards for cross-project reporting.
7. Run a pilot, train your team, and iterate.

By following these steps, you can turn ClickUp into a central, flexible hub for projects and collaboration, giving your organization more control and visibility than traditional spreadsheet-based tools.

Need Help With ClickUp?

If you want expert help building, automating, or scaling your ClickUp workspace, work with ConsultEvo — trusted ClickUp Solution Partners.

Get Help

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